


Playing Pretend

by SleepyKaDoodle



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Bisexual Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), F/M, M/M, Mention of Death, Not Beta Read, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Playing Pretend, Sunset Curve (Julie and The Phantoms), past luke patterson and alex mercer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:55:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29072145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyKaDoodle/pseuds/SleepyKaDoodle
Summary: When the sunset curve trio were kids, they would imagine and play in a world of their own.Now that they're in a new world, they don't have to pretend and play just to be okay.Hotdogs cant kill them twice.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Playing Pretend

**Author's Note:**

> Am I writing a JATP fanfic to avoid writing another chapter for my other BNHA fanfic?  
> Yes.  
> Yes, I am.
> 
> Please enjoy :)

The remaining members of sunset curve were lounging in the garage. Ray had just left with Julie and Carlos to take them to school and with the whole Orpheum incident, Willie was still off the radar.

Reggie sighed after commenting, "Man… I'm bored, but im in a weird funk, you know?" 

“Relax. We can go anywhere since we’re ghosts”

“But also nowhere because Caleb will definitely know he doesn’t have his little magic GPS tasers on us anymore!” Alex cried in frustration, zipping the zipper on his fanny pack up and down in order to let out some energy and distract at least a fraction of his mind.

“How about we play a game?”

“Dude you know I suck at card games.” Reggie seemed almost offended, though both boys knew he was just being dramatic for the fun of it.

“I kinda got Yu gi oh? Never had any cards though.”

Silence. Pure uncomfortable silence.

The bassist stood up and raised his hands in surrender. “I got nothin!”

“I got an idea.” Alex had his lightbulb moment for the first time since he last saw his magical ghost-friend. “How about that game we used to play as kids? What was it..”

Luke quirked a brow, “Eye spy?”

“Nonono-” He sat up properly as if proper posture would somehow let the not-so-present circulation let him think better about what he is forgetting.

“Playing pretend!” he slapped his hands together in the exclamation of his idea.

“Oh damn. I think the last time I thought about that was the sleepover at Bobby’s when we were about… 10?”

“I just turned 11 at the time so yeah we were all about 10.” Luke smiled, enjoying the nostalgia.

“I used to think I could manipulate things with my mind whenever we played.”

“And you, Reginald, somehow always found a stick to make a pretend lightsaber.” Alex chuckled. “I think one time you stole one of the pickets on your neighbour’s fence to pretend-surfboard for a day.”

“Hey. My mom wouldn’t buy me a skateboard or a surfboard, so fence-board it was.” Reggie added.

“Every time I jammed out in my room with my guitar I’d pretend I was on top of the damn world.”

“We will be someday, now. And this time street dogs can’t stop us!” 

“Don’t jinx us again Reggie- last time you literally said street dogs haven’t killed us and then they did.”

“I died last man… It was ugly…” Alex shivered. “Remind me to be a vegan in the next life.”

“Whatever dude. Just sit down and think of something cool.”

“Think of something?”

“Yeah, man. Hell, tell a story of what you wish life would be.”

  
  


Alex and Willie would be the main characters of the story. They’d meet, talk, shout in a few museums but never have the ghost club exist because they wouldn’t be dead. There wouldn’t be a rush to finish business or grieve over dying twice.

Alex wanted what any kid his age wanted. A happy ending with a house, a job and a wonderful spouse. Definitely a cute dog. Maybe a little cliche but Alex wanted life to be perfect to make up for all the ways he was fucked up.

Anxiety meant he rarely talked to people when he was alive, and being gay in the 90s as a teenager still didn’t go down too well even if he had the world’s best anti-homophobe radar. Weirdly enough Reggie saying Ray had a kind heart ticked that invisible acceptance box.

  
  


Reggie would do a bunch of stuff. Travel the world, meet cool people, do awesome things to make him go down in history as more than just the third wheel. Sometimes in large friend groups, he even felt like the sixth or seventh wheel. 

Reggie wished he will never lose what he already has, and only built upon whats important. Back in high school, he would’ve been the popular kid if not for Luke’s devilish charms out-ranking him and Alex’s fashion sense outranking his. Theoretically, he only outranked Bobby socially, but with him now being Trevor “the douche” Wilson, he’s just disqualified.

Luke never really thought much about what he wanted. The moment he came into contact with the chance to play music he dreamed of playing on the world’s largest stage with his band and contribute to the hall of fame.

Love was something a little weird to him. He previously had a thing going on with Alex, but it sort of fizzled out mutually and then they kinda died and Luke ended up head over heels for the one person he literally can’t get. Better than Reggie’s crush on the purple girl in Dirty Candy.

“What was her name again”

“Kayla!” The smile on the bassists face could be only described as that of a golden retriever on the brink of getting the zoomies.

Julie sometimes imagined herself on a grand stage, bringing out all shes got with her friends by her side and fancy lights and stuff making everything even more awesome once she busts out a sentimental song like Wake Up. Maybe even one day Perfect Harmony.

That song was so important Julie had to hide the paper behind a picture in a picture frame instead of her dream box, leaving only “Play pretend with family” as a note to remind her which picture it was.

Something about the phrase Play Pretend stood out in her mind as she walked into her classes that day, but she didn’t really mind.

Carlos, the kid he literally was, always does crazy things. Namely the recent ghost hunting and the third relish recipe that made him confidant that the ghost(s?) had gone away.

He had a couple of imaginary friends, but they were more personified toys than invisible people, like Julie’s Holograms that act as the name suggests.

They did look kinda familiar sometimes, though he was sure it was just him being used to seeing random junk in the garage that definitely matches the vibe the trio has.

“Pretending you have something you don’t cant be healthy in the long run though!”

“Dude. Don’t tell me you never wished you could say or do something you haven’t or won’t do.”

“... I wish ghosts didn’t have to have Anxiety for starters.”

“Did dying last and crying for 25 years really break somehow supernatural musician spirits?” Luke said sarcastically, putting in some drama by posing.

“YES, dude. Lay off already.”

“Sorry.” both Reggie and Luke said out of reflex, being the ones that usually tease Alex.

“I do wish Bobby died with us. That way Trevor wouldn’t steal songs we literally wrote about each other.” Reggie sighed. “Home is where my horse is could’ve looked great in Platinum though.”

“Not for as long as Crooked Teeth is still about you!” Alex pointed out.

“Oh please, Bright is literally a love song for you two.”

“Julie’s been with us three for a while. Do you think she’s ever written a love song?”

“She wrote Solo for Flynn even if I’m responsible for it being a song.”

“I think she stopped being mad about that one too.”

“I don’t know. Right now it’s just me and Julie that’s kind of a thing.”

“So you admit it?” Alex and Reggie simultaneously said in judgement and surprise.

“I still got to hug her first!” Luke chuckled.

“Are my hugs not valid anymore??” Reggie stood up and pretended to be mad by walking to a corner like a toddler.

“Reggie…” Alex sighed.

“C’mere you big baby. One advantage of being a ghost now- cuddle piles won’t hurt even if you’re the bottom cuddle-ee.”

That seemed to arouse enough interest in the touch-starved bassist for him to come over and just lie on the two of them.

Yeah…

Things were okay.

They were friends whether they all liked it or not.

And they didn’t need to play pretend to be okay anymore.


End file.
